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Old 06-11-2021, 09:29 PM
WhiteNoise
I?m good, I?m alright
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 108
Re: Favorite Live Recording/Bootleg...
I'll do a top ten, in no particular order

Ancienne Belgique 2008. Extraordinary performances of some extremely rare tracks in the first half, followed by a super well executed "greatest hits" second half, with a really unique encore as well. Best version of Spoonman by far.

Mojo Club 1998. This is a super high spirits gig during that 1998 period where they were still a bit loosey goosey with the songs that would get standardized by the time Everything Everything rolled around. Cups here is phenomenal.

Cocoon 2006 w/ Sven Vath. So unique. A ton of fun. Probably the best DJ / Live back to back they've done, radio or otherwise IMO.

The Octagon 1994. Needs no introduction really. It's impressive how much they were in a league of their own at this point in time.

Creamfields 2002. Probably my favorite festival / greatest hits set. Peak mayhem with Two Months Off newly in the repertoire, that crazy unreleased rave segue track, Twist, a pretty killer Pearls Girl too.

Peel Session 2003. They're at the cusp of entering the Riverrun period at this point so they've taken the 2002 live performances and gone completely avant garde with them. The definitive version of Trim for me, and really lovely takes on Jumbo and Nuxx 2003.

Osaka 2005. I nearly picked Tokyo 2005 and it's a testament to the audacity and skill of Underworld that they were able to do two 3 hour sets on back to back days and not only barely miss but come up with different experiences. Osaka is the stronger set to listen to overall, but I like how weird Tokyo gets in places.

Blue Mountain 1999. Pearls Girl, Something Like a Mama and Please Help Me / Cappe Ffuno from this jam are just etched into my brain.

Bootleg Babies. Maybe this doesn't count but I sincerely, truly love this collection and have easily played it more often than any other set.

Finally, Mayan Theater 1998, aka the best gig they've ever done.


Honorable mention: the Best of the Bells tour 4CD compilation that was shared here, I spin this constantly. Also Rick's pre-show gigs from 2017 are fantastic and do not get talked about anywhere NEAR as much as they should, for how much unreleased content there was in them.

And I agree about the 2000 gigs, it's a shame we don't have more recordings of these as Rick really seemed to let loose.

Last edited by WhiteNoise; 06-11-2021 at 09:38 PM.